By Sticky Drama

“They may intoxicate themselves on literature as ‘on pure water, and as cheaply, too, for there will then be fountains of literature in the streets as there are now hydrants.”

In a time when the book’s death is annually predicted, Sticky Drama takes its starting point in Octave Uzanne’s short story The End of Books from 1894 to produce an audio-based theater performance exploring the changing image of the author and reader.

Uzanne’s short story presents a prophecy of a utopian future full of sounds where books will have disappeared in a hundred years and are replaced by audio books. Writers will expose their works through “phonographs” and patent their own voices instead of the text itself. In this sci-fi story on the future of the book, the narrator’s voice will be given greater power than the story itself.  And when publishers such as Nordstedts are acquired by audiobook companies like Storytel, Uzanne’s The End of Books is no longer a fictional story but by and large an incorporated reality, with consequences on the meaning and purpose of writing and reading.

Hearers will not regret the time when they were readers; 
with eyes unwearied, with countenances refreshed,
their air of careless freedom will witness
to the benefits of the contemplative life.

But has listening given us more freedom? Has the narrative voice gained more power over the text? Sticky Drama’s The End of Books puts the idea of ​​”the Book’s death” and the utopia of sound to the test. Because can a medium really die? And is it really the case that we started to care more about how things sound than what is actually being said?  When everything around us seems to have been gifted with a voice that can tell us things – everything from beds to iPhones – it doesn’t seem as obvious that storytelling comes to us as a liberation, but perhaps more as a matter of how much longer we will have the strength to carry on listening.

The End of Books premiered at Atalante in Göteborg in 2020 and is the second collaboration between Sticky Drama and Audiorama. It was also presented at Turteatern, Stockholm and Östersunds Teaterverkstad.

Concept and Idea: Sticky Drama
Text: Ruby Nilsson
Direction: Olof Runsten
Sound, Lighting and Music: Patsy Lassbo
Duration: 72 minutes
Language: English